


Memory Problems

by jesuiscalme



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, ew first fic, i cant write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 18:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8337913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesuiscalme/pseuds/jesuiscalme
Summary: Jihyo and Mina are sad cute marshmallows.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts were: Jihyo, Soulmate AU, college music major
> 
> Soulmate AU where mark on wrist changes colour when in proximity of soulmate.

Jihyo doesn’t have the best memory. Her friends always say that she spent most of her brain memorising melodies that she didn’t have enough space left to remember things like bringing her phone, brushing her teeth, eating, drinking water, watering her cactus(it’s ok if she forgets this anyway)... well just everything actually. But that’s okay, because those things were trivial. And Jihyo wouldn’t ever forget the special things in her life. Like her music. Like the first day she met her. 

It was 5.30am in the morning and Jihyo definitely did not need an excited outraged Nayeon shaking her awake. 

...Only to tell her that her favourite idol just found their soulmate and it’s some “stone-faced bitch” that “doesn’t deserve my oppa!!1!1!11!1!” 

“Ji, do you think it’s media play? Like the bitch just debuted like 5 seconds ago, it has to be! Can’t you ask some of your idol friends? I mean we’ve been roommates for a while now you can do this one little thing for me right I mean--” 

“Why are you so hung up over that anyway? Isn’t your soulmate that peach girl?”

“She has a name! And oppa is different! Oppa is like--”

“Shut up. Sleep.”

Feigning hurt, Nayeon threw a pillow at Jihyo before flippantly making her way to the communal kitchen to get her daily healthy Chia seed smoothie. 

Soulmates were never a comfortable topic for Jihyo even though she’d always pretend she was okay. In the media, they’d always romanticise it. You’d hear beautiful stories of people who found their soulmates when they were at the lowest points of their lives. You’d hear funny anecdotes of how people met their soulmates in awkward situations. Heck, there’s probably a movie airing every week about some fated meeting between two individuals and how they lived happily ever after. 

Conclusion: People are supposed to find their soulmates, and soulmates give people a happier, more fulfilled life. In fact, according to the brand new study by Gallup Korea, 87% of adults in Korea have found their soulmates, and out of those people, 95% claim that they have felt more happy with their soulmate, whereas 80% of adults who have not met their soulmate claim that they feel incomplete. 

Jihyo is part of that 13% of people. It was a day in late October 2002. She doesn’t remember most of the details, just that she went to the amusement park, and her mother realised that her mark changed when they got home. She remembers crying for the entire night, she remembers her mother assuaging her softly that relationships weren’t everything in the world and that she could be perfectly fine without a soulmate. 

It was okay in the beginning. Very few had a soulmate all through elementary school and middle school. But through high school, she watched her friends found their soulmates one by one, while she remained alone. She could only stare in envy as they recounted their dates, sickeningly happy expressions of their faces. It was then she thought, maybe I’m really going to remain alone forever, sitting alone at home with my cats while the world celebrated their newfound happiness. For a while, she lied to herself, pretending that her mark had never changed, that she still had hope. 

Of course, she grew to accept her fate. If marks told people their fates, then Jihyo was probably destined to never have a partner. That’s okay. She could deal with that. So for the past few years, she lived by her mother’s words. There was little chance of her getting a soulmate, and she’d accept that. There were bigger things in life, bigger things that she could achieve without a soulmate, and perhaps being sans soulmate helped her. She could focus on her studies, focus on her passion, pour her heart into her career, and well, she’d have her cats to accompany her when she was older. Tout va bien. 

And so that’s how she found herself majoring Music Production and Engineering, holed up in a 14m2 dorm room with her ridiculous roommate. Speaking of which…

“BREAKFAST!” 

As ridiculous as Nayeon was, she would always make sure to cook for the five of them living in the same dorm, albeit in exchange for photocards and albums of her oppa. Jihyo was glad that she had the four idiots cheering her up when she felt down. She crawled out of bed, washed up before plopping herself at the dining table. She could really do with a nice breakfast. 

“The new roommate is coming today. The housekeeper just told me,” Jungyeon had mumbled with bread in her mouth.

“Finally!”

“Hope she doesn’t have too many things lol”

“Oh that’s nice.”

Sana, Nayeon and Dahyun were all curious about the new housemate. Sana hadn’t had a new roommate for half a year since Lena left. A new girl would fill up the space she had left behind. Plus, the more the merrier, right? Jihyo really didn’t think much of it. 

Not long after, the doorbell rang, signalling the arrival of their new friend. Jihyo shuffled over to the door and opened it.

The girl was absolutely breathtaking. 

Rich honey locks tumbled over her shoulder, framing a small face with beautiful doe eyes that seemed to sparkle. Jihyo could only stare and smile awkwardly. Some part of Jihyo’s heart was vaguely alarmed when the corners of the girl’s lips pulled into a heart-wrenchingly adorable answering smile. Jihyo knew herself to be pretty, but this girl in front of her possessed an elegant grace that she’d never seen before. 

“Hi, I’m Mina, the new dorm mate.” Her gentle voice broke Jihyo out of her trance. She was biting her lip nervously and that was when Jihyo realised she’d been silently staring at her like a fool.

“Ah… yes. I...uh...I’m Jihyo, nice to meet you. Um, we’re having breakfast, you could join us?” Jihyo stammered as she led Mina in, mentally slapping herself. 

Jihyo remembers clearly that Mina felt strangely familiar to her. Perhaps it was just her blatant infatuation on the dance major, or maybe it was Mina’s easy integration into her community. It wasn’t long before they learnt more about Mina. Things like her quite possibly being the best ballet dancer in the school, or her obsession with video games, and her special affinity for ketchup (and Jihyo’s special affinity for Mina). 

Jihyo knew that her crush on Mina probably wouldn’t last and shouldn’t last. In fact, she was surprised that she could have such feelings of infatuation for the dancer, because Jihyo had known herself to be mostly loveless. Either way, her feelings shouldn’t matter, because Mina probably had a soulmate and had a lovely life with her soulmate, like all the other girls did. 

So Jihyo would like Mina silently, and be a good friend to Mina.

Jihyo learns that Mina likes food, so she brings her out to the different corners of the city for award winning desserts, late night street snacks, and the like, all while snapping photos of her in compromising eating positions, ignoring Mina’s protestations of “Ewww it’s so unglam” because Mina will always be pretty to Jihyo. 

Jihyo learns that Mina looooves shopping, so she pretends she likes walking, just so she could accompany her on her five hour shopping sprees. Because what are sore legs when you get pretty Mina in pretty clothes and pretty smiles in return? 

Jihyo learns that Mina likes cookies, so she endures the wrath of her other housemates for her overuse of the oven and finds a different recipe every week to bake, under the guise that she plans on taking a baking course and she needs to prepare. Mina always swoons over her cookies adorably, and Jihyo swoons over Mina. 

Jihyo does a lot of things for Mina, and it almost feels as if Mina wanted her to. It almost feels as if they were… soulmates. Jihyo almost thinks that Mina has feelings when she greets Jihyo every morning with a back hug. Jihyo almost thinks that Mina wants to tell her something more whenever Jihyo does something nice for her. After all, they’ve progressed a lot from the shy individuals that couldn’t say more than the trite “hello” to each other on their first day. Mina crawls into Jihyo’s bed when she can’t sleep, and Jihyo drags Mina awake in the wee hours of the morning, maniacally jabbing at her computer screen, raving about her new melody, every bit the insane composer. 

They share a lot of things, and Jihyo feels guilty for stealing Mina away from her soulmate. In her defense, the dancer had never spoken about soulmate, and Jihyo had never asked. Perhaps a part of her had always hoped that Mina was broken just like her, so they could be broken together. But she feels responsible, so she gathers courage and asks her during one of their late night talks. 

“Hey Mina, can I ask you a question? I mean you can choose not to answer if you don’t want to it’s just that I was curious it’s totally okay if you just ignore me it’s kinda personal I just really wanted to know I mean I just...yeah.”

“What?”

“I...uh… I have a question? It’s kinda personal?”

“Why are you being so weird today? Since when have you asked for my permission to ask questions, silly.”

“So I can just ask, right?”

“Go on.”

“Do you have a soulmate?”

Mina’s face changes and Jihyo just wants to shove the words back into her mouth. She watches as Mina rubs her wrist guard absentmindedly before removing it, to reveal a small green mark. So her mark had changed.  
“I… I’m not with my soulmate. My mark turned at a New Year’s countdown party. I’d searched, heck I even used the stupid SoulFinder app. I guess there were too many people. I’m over it now though.” She barked out a short, bitter laugh. 

Jihyo didn’t know what to feel. Some part of her felt glad that Mina shared her troubles, and some part of her felt guilty when she looked at Mina’s melancholic expression. So Jihyo simply loosens her own wrist guard and tells Mina, “Me too.” 

Jihyo doesn’t remember how it happened, but she remembers how Mina’s face crumples up and she starts sobbing against Jihyo’s shoulder. And before she knew it, Jihyo was crying too. 

Everyone had been trying to convince her that it was okay to live without a relationship and without a partner, but there was nothing wrong in letting things flow naturally, and there was nothing wrong in finding someone that wasn’t your destined other half, because love was love. Jihyo felt very cheated. All the advice she’d gotten were to comfort her for not being to find love, but here was Mina in front of her, beautifully alive. 

Determined, Jihyo pulls away from Mina, taking Mina’s hands into hers. Jihyo doesn’t quite remember how she gathered the courage, but she did, and she tells Mina firmly, “If we haven’t found our soulmates after so long, maybe we’re not fated with them. I like you, and I think there’s a good chance that you like me too. So until we find our real soulmates, let’s be soulmates.”

Mina blushes cutely and gives Jihyo one of her gorgeously unfair smiles. 

“Let’s be soulmates.”


End file.
